Vietnam designer Phan Huy makes history as Paris Haute Couture wraps up
- Last updated: January 31, 2026 | 11:04 ..
Vietnam’s Phan Huy became the youngest-ever designer to present a collection on the official Haute Couture calendar in Paris aged just 27 on Thursday, rounding out a week of major fashion debuts and celebrity sightings. Phan thrilled the fashion scene at a venue in western Paris, having had a whirlwind rise into the world’s most exclusive design club since creating his eponymous label in 2023.
His airy Spring/Summer 2026 collection of evening dresses made abundant use of light muslin and tulle fabric, as well as hand-stitched floral and beaded embellishments, all inspired by Vietnam’s former royal Nguyen dynasty. “I’m very happy and very proud because I can represent and bring the culture and creativity of Vietnam to the world,” Phan said earlier this week. As well as being the youngest, he is the first Vietnamese designer on the programme.
Although Vietnam is well-known as a manufacturing hub for mass-market Western clothes, Phan’s business partner Steven Doan stressed that the duo “want to prove that we can do fashion as well”.
Phan has been fast-tracked into a field that is becoming increasingly diverse under the impulse of the French fashion federation, FHCM. The last day of Haute Couture Week included shows by Saudi label Ashi Studio as well as Syrian designer Rami Al Ali, who joined the official schedule for the first time last year.
But the early part of his week was spent anxiously waiting for his designs to arrive in France from Vietnam after they were held up in customs. “I was very nervous,” the soft-spoken 27-year-old said on Tuesday just hours after his elaborate hand-made dresses were finally released, meaning he could begin fitting the models.
“We had a paperwork issue,” his co-founder and brand chief executive Steven Doan, 40, explained. The delays complicated an already daunting task for the duo who have been catapulted into Paris Haute Couture Week and the fashion stratosphere. They only created the label in 2023, but have been fast-tracked into a field that includes corporate giants like Chanel, Dior or Armani, which have billions in annual sales. Phan and Doan have more limited resources and prepared to unveil their designs on Thursday using a cramped basement apartment in western Paris as a studio.
The origins of the brand go back to Phan’s final collection at the Ho Chi Minh City University which became a viral sensation, drawing attention from local celebrities including singers My Tam and Ho Ngoc Ha. “It was a dream because I was a young student,” said Phan, who only turned 27 this week. Doan, a former model and a stylist in London, also reached out from his then-home in the British capital to suggest they work together. “I was really struck by Huy’s talent. In Vietnam there’s a level of designing that is very similar and then when you see a different collection, it really stands out,” Doan said.
While he grew up in the coastal city of Nha Trang, Phan hails from a village in the central Quang Tri province.
Phan credits his first interest in fabrics to his parents’ curtain shop, where material was always abundant.
He would transform some of it into doll dresses.
“I was into fashion and clothing when I was six years old. I was always very picky with my own outfits,” he explained. The invitation to Paris Haute Couture Week came from France’s FHCM fashion federation, which is the guardian of the country’s highly protected Fashion Weeks and a key tastemaker.
Alongside the permanent French couture houses, the federation invites guest designers from around the world who have both the skill and commitment to handmade craft that form the basis of the business. Doan stressed that their home country is known as a global manufacturing hub that produces mass-market clothes for Western brands. “We want to prove that we can do fashion as well,” he said.
The last Phan Huy collection, which was shown off-calendar in Paris last July, included references to everyday rural Vietnamese life from fans, fishing nets, straw bundles to banana leaves.
The Spring/Summer 2026 season has been inspired by Vietnam’s former ruling Nguyen dynasty, notably Emperor Khai Dinh and the last empress consort, Nam Phuong, who both lived under colonial French rule. “I want to be inspired by people like Empress consort Nam Phuong, King Khai Dinh, with their fashion style and the interaction between the West and the East,” explained Phan.
The most-followed events of the last four days have been the Haute Couture debuts of new Chanel and Dior designers Matthieu Blazy and Jonathan Anderson, who took over the labels last year. The two 40-something contemporaries were promoted as part of a vast overhaul of creative director positions in the European luxury clothing sector in the last 12 months.
Seen as new generational talents, the Franco-Belgian and Northern Irish designers have the daunting task of modernising some of the most venerable and profitable labels in fashion. Blazy turned to birdlife for inspiration for his collection, producing designs that made waves for appearing both wearable and relatable — and modelled by an unusual number of older models.
A-listers from actor Nicole Kidman and singer Dua Lipa to rapper A$AP Rocky sat in the front row.
The Business of Fashion website called it a “slam dunk”, while Paris-based fashion commentator Diane Pernet said it was “everything that couture is supposed to be.”
Anderson has had more mixed appraisals, with some critics seeing the more risk-taking designer as still searching for a clear identity for his LVMH-owned mega-brand.
Singer Rihanna was full of praise for the son of a rugby player backstage, telling him that the “show took my breath away. People were stunned”, according to a video of the encounter posted online by a fashion journalist.
Agence France-Presse